“What felt wonderful?”
“The way you were playing with my hair.” She shrugged. “It was…gentle. I liked it.”
His hand came up to her head again, weaving through the tangled mess. “Come closer, then.” He whispered. “You can tell me what happened.”
Nymiria was surprised to find that her back no longer hurt, that the pain was just a dull ache as she shifted closer to him. It hadn’t even dawned upon her that she was naked, with nothing but a thin sheet covering her bottom.
“Did you take my pain away?” She asked.
Aziel smiled down at her, still brushing through her hair. “No, moonflower, I believe your powers are back. You’ve healed yourself.” He spoke softly, smirking as he watched her wiggle her bottom around, certainly trying to see just how well her body had done its job. “If you keep that up, I’ll have to bury my face between them.” When she shot him a perplexed look, Aziel’s eyes dropped to her ass once again. She gasped in disbelief.
She chuckled, but there was a hint of nervousness to the sound. “You would do something like that?”
He arched his brow, fingers stilling for just a moment. “Do it again and I will gladly show you.”
Her skin heated immediately. Though the thought of it had her clenching her thighs to quell the throb that formed between her legs, she was thoroughly enjoying them justbeingtogether.
Good gods, she never believed those words would even enter her mind. It was more of a shock to her than the thought of him having his face between her asscheeks. Even so, her heart battered against her ribs just from being close to him. It was wholly different from when they’d first met. And while so little time had passed, there was so much that had changed. Her whole world had been turned upside down. Even if she abandoned this bed with him now and never returned to his side, she would never look at the world the same way again.
And even if she ran from him, she would always find her way back to him. The universe, the unknown forces beyond, would ensure it.
After explaining to him what the Rune Witch had done for her, Aziel insisted upon changing her dressings, despite her protests. Though there was no pain, there was still fear of an infection occurring and when Nymiria voiced that Desiwas far more skilled in this area than he was, he merely shot her a playfully hateful glare and began tugging at the bindings wrapped around her center.
“You do realize that, as an assassin and a guard, I have had to tend to quite a few wounds.” He deadpanned.
Nymiria smirked into her pillow, forcing herself not to arch into the gentle glide of his fingers. “What about magic wounds?” She hummed.
Aziel chuckled, his breath cascading along the slope of her spine. He was awfully close. Far too close for her to ignore it. “Yes, love. Evenmagic wounds. We were going up against our fair share of Mystics. Some carried iron blades and some carried blades laced with poisons, or enchanted with spells.” He tugged a single strip of the binding out from under her and tossed it to the floor. “I once came across a man who had been stabbed with an enchanted blade that made it so he would never be able to speak the name of his assailant. To this day, he would not even be able to tell you what the individual looked like.”
Interesting.
“Were you the one who stabbed him?” She peeked over her shoulder just enough to catch a glimpse of him smiling, a small chuckle rousing from deep within his chest. “Aziel!”
He quirked a brow in her direction, still smirking. “What?”
“I’ll take that as ayes.”
He shrugged. “He would never be able to tell you if your assumptions are true.”
Nymiria bit back her grin, burying her face in the pillow as he slipped out another cloth. She was silent for the rest of the bindings and when her back was revealed to him, she heard him suck in a sharp breath, his thumb grazing over the skin that, only a few hours before, felt as if it had melted away.
“Does it look awful?” She asked.
She couldn’t see him shake his head, but she could feel his fingers poking and prodding at the tender skin. Not enough to hurt, per say, but enough to cause discomfort. “On the contrary, my love, there is not a single blemish where this rune once was. Not even a scar.”
Her heart gave a solid thud, her stomach swirling with excitement and fear as she reared up and peered over her shoulder. By the gods, he was right. The rune that was shaped like a witchlock on her spine was now nowhere to be found. In its place was smooth, pale, and unblemished skin. Not a single imperfection. The other two runes remained, just as gnarled and hideous as before, but the other wasgone. Gone.
“Your body has started to heal you faster.” Aziel said lowly. “Your Grace should start to show again soon.”
She didn’t know how she felt about that part. While it excited her, she had no idea what to expect. If her Grace was extremely powerful or if it was just as her mother always said—parlor tricks.
Upon seeing her teeth nibbling at the skin on her lips, Aziel released a sigh and moved around the bed so that he could see her better. Nymiria tracked his movements, eyes filled with worry and silver-colored tears.
“What you are feeling is normal, moonflower. When I accepted my godhood, I was terrified of what it meant for me. To be fairly honest, there was quite a lot of drinking involved in those first few months.”
“You were scared?”
He smiled and extended his hand towards her to trace over her quivering chin. “Who wouldn’t be?” He tilted his head to the side.
